Nielsen Rolls Out ‘People Meters’

Los Angeles’ television landscape could be on the verge of a dramatic shift.

Beginning today, TV ratings giant Nielsen Media Research plans to switch to “people meters” in the Los Angeles market, potentially altering the way advertisers spend more than $2 billion for local airtime.

Backers say the new system for measuring audiences is more accurate and is widely expected to show lower ratings for some programs aired by broadcast stations while boosting numbers for some lower-profile cable offerings.

“We will continue to follow the ratings. The ratings will determine how we allocate our clients’ dollars,” said Sue Johenning, an executive vice president for Initiative, an advertising firm that buys commercial time for Home Depot and Carl’s Jr. restaurants, among others.

In recent months, as Nielsen has fine-tuned the system, “we’ve seen remarkably higher ratings for other younger-skewing shows on cable like ‘Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’ and ‘Monster Garage,’ ” Johenning said.

For more than four decades, Nielsen has gleaned detailed demographic data about viewers’ TV-watching habits from handwritten diaries collected several times a year during “sweeps” months.

Now, Nielsen plans to generate the local ratings daily with the people meters that have been installed in nearly 800 homes in the Los Angeles region. The meters electronically record what programs are being watched -- and who is watching them.

Their introduction is sure to bring uncertainty and unease to the local broadcasting world as the old model for measuring audiences gives way to the new, station executives said.

Some networks and a coalition of community groups, called Don’t Count Us Out, are particularly unhappy about the changes. For months, they have lobbied Nielsen to delay the switch-over. They say Nielsen’s sample audience underrepresents Latinos and African Americans, producing faulty results. Leading the charge have been News Corp., which owns Fox Broadcasting Co.; Viacom Inc.’s CBS; Spanish-language Univision Communications Inc.; and TV station owner Tribune Co., which also publishes the Los Angeles Times.

Some activists, including a small group that rallied outside Los Angeles City Hall on Wednesday, say they fear the new system will lead to lower ratings for some shows that appeal to minorities, and ultimately result in their cancellation.

The Don’t Count Us Out campaign, largely financed by News Corp., has spent $2 million to $5 million on TV and newspaper ads and phone banks to target homes in African American and Latino neighborhoods of New York and Los Angeles.

Both sides also have commissioned studies that support their positions.

The opposition campaign has attracted the support of some state and local officials as well as members of Congress. A Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation subcommittee has tentatively scheduled a hearing July 15 to debate the accuracy of Nielsen’s people meters.

“It’s imperative that Nielsen’s ratings system be accurate and reflect all viewers,” California Assemblyman Jerome E. Horton (D-Inglewood) said Wednesday.

Critics’ complaints focus on the composition of the sample audience that Nielsen has selected for the people meters.

“The sample audience is even more important than the technology,” said Jim Kite, global research director for advertising-buying firm Universal-McCann. “We need to have a currency that both the advertisers and the networks believe in.... There is so much money at stake.”

But Nielsen, which is owned by Dutch publishing conglomerate VNU, emphasized that its ratings sample was accurate and that it planned to move forward.

The debate, industry experts say, has focused new attention on the often obscure process of generating TV ratings and highlighted nuances long overlooked.

“In the past, the question has been, ‘Are there enough blacks and Latinos in the sample?’ ” said CBS’ chief of research, David Poltrack. “The issue has gone one step further to, ‘Are the minorities that are included in the sample ... truly representative of the socioeconomic composition of the community?’ ”

For example, in New York, Nielsen was criticized for initially including too many blacks of Caribbean descent, who primarily spoke Spanish, in their sample. In Los Angeles, critics say Nielsen has recruited too many older viewers and Latinos who primarily speak English. Such misrepresentations, critics say, could hurt ratings for Univision and Fox, which tend to draw younger audiences.

Nielsen executives say their sample audience mirrors the makeup of Los Angeles.

Of Nielsen’s 794 homes in the L.A. sample, a third are Latino. In all, Spanish is the primary language in 15.5% of the homes.

Univision sued Nielsen over the sample, claiming the number of Spanish-speaking homes in L.A. is much higher -- about 25%. Last week, a judge denied Univision’s request to block today’s rollout but set a hearing for next month to discuss a trial.

In a recent interview, Nielsen Media Research President Susan D. Whiting said, “The standard should be, ‘Is this a better measurement?’ And the answer is yes.”